Sanders seals season with sixth spot in Turkey

Updated: September 30, 2014

By Mark Etheridge

Commonwealth silver medallist Gill Sanders has wrapped up her triathlon season with a solid sixth spot at the weekend’s World Cup event in Turkey.Sanders was part of the South African team that took second spot to England in the team event at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.
In Turkey she ended just 10 seconds outside the two-hour barrier as Netherlands’ Maaike Caelers clocked a time of 1hr 59min 31sec for the 1500-metre swim, 40-kilometre bike and 10km run.
Just over a minute covered the top 10 women, an indication of the close competition.
Sanders, still based in London, was happy with her 2:00:10 finish. ”Last race of the season for me and I was pretty happy with sixth,’ she told Road to Rio 2016. ‘I got some good Olympic qualification points in the bag and its always great to finish the season strong.
‘I ran a 33:57 off the bike for 10km which I’m really pleased about at the end of a long season. The highlight of the year was definitely our Commonwealth medal and I can now enjoy an end-of-season break with a smile on my face!’
Cape Town’s Vicky van der Merwe was also all set to tackle the Turkish leg but illness ruled her out of contention.
‘I think I got some sort of food poisoning,’ she said. ‘I just felt nauseous, my body ached everywhere and I had a fever so I pulled out. What a waste. I now need to catch up a race for points so maybe my season isn’t over yet.’
South Africa’s only male competitor in action was Wicus Weber who ended 44th in 1:50:52 (19:21, 55:32, 34:29) as Switzerland’s Sven Riederer took gold in 1:45:57.